Another week, another Vibracathedral Orchestra related slice of free-psych-drone weirdness, but I'm not complaining. Ever since seeing those Vibracathedral fellers live a couple of years ago I've been rabid for more of their freeform droning craziness, and this disc, a project of VCO man Neil Campbell and his folky friends takes his sound into further cosmic territories. Campbell originally issued these tracks as super limited cdrs which sold out practically before they had even been released, but he has (along with collaborator Tirath Singh Nirmala) edited and remixed the tracks so much for this release that they are almost totally unrecognizable from the originals. Blending the usual VCO psychey drones with Kraut-influenced electronic pulsing and sputtering beats, what results is a kosmiche experiment unlike anything you're likely to have heard before. I can't think of a better way to celebrate label VHF's 100th release, being the prime purveyers of outré drone sounds 'Astral Social Club' could almost be a 'best of' it takes in so many different styles across it's 11 tracks. If you like distorted, droning ambience and tape-layered early-electronic styled beatplay then you couldn't go far wrong with this album. Recommended.